


pot of gold

by orsumfenix



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Developing Relationship, Hair Dyeing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 00:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7077250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsumfenix/pseuds/orsumfenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Semi Eita dyes his hair on a regular basis, in the midst of dealing with family, volleyball and Tendou Satori.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pot of gold

**Author's Note:**

> prior to The Reveal™, i couldn't make up my mind about what colour i wanted semi's hair to be. so this happened.  
> also i have nothing against brown hair lol i have brown hair brown hair rocks

brown 

There is a time, before Semi Eita discovers the wonders of dye, when he has brown hair.

It’s not exactly the most interesting of hair colours, or the rarest. By the time he turns ten he has three younger siblings, and all of them share the same boring, bland brown.

He’s sick of it.

“What’s so bad about brown?” Kaa-san simply points out when Semi complains. She looks up from her crossword for only a brief second before continuing. “You don’t want to be the odd one out, do you?”

The thing is, Semi _does_.

Tou-san just laughs when Semi says so, because Tou-san laughs at everything.

“If you _really_ want to stand out,” he says, still grinning like a lunatic. “You should dye your hair pink. That’d catch everyone’s eyes!”

“I’m not dyeing it pink,” Semi states, flushing slightly. Tou-san just laughs again, but Kaa-san sighs.

“If you _really_ want to dye your hair,” she begins, putting her pen down and resting the newspaper on the table. “It’ll have to be a normal colour. How about black?”

“Black’s boring, too,” Semi complains; he’s right – it’s ordinary, and almost _everyone_ has black hair. But when Kaa-san goes out especially and comes home with black hair dye, Semi lets her and Tou-san follow the instructions and turn his hair black. 

black

He doesn’t exactly _stand out_ with black hair, but it beats the boring brown his siblings are still stuck with, so that’s something.

It’s still a shock whenever Semi looks in the mirror – he looks like a whole different _person_ , now – but it doesn’t take long for him to get used to it. He gets Kaa-san to keep buying the dye and Tou-san to keep helping him to redo it, because sometimes Semi catches a glimpse of brown routes showing through and he doesn’t want to go back to _that_.

Semi spends about a year with dark hair before he gets bored.

“It’s not… _unique_ enough,” he tries to explain to his parents. They both shoot him blank looks, but Tou-san looks seconds away from cracking up. “And it’s too dark. I want something lighter.”

Kaa-san _tsks_ under her breath.

“If you want something lighter, you’re going to have to bleach it,” she says. Semi nods.

“Okay.”

yellow

He goes with yellow, and does it professionally this time. His hairdresser smiles as she goes about making it blond, catching Semi’s eyes in the mirror.

“I have a son about your age,” she informs, and Semi reads her name tag. _Tendou._ “Satori. He’s been finding it a bit difficult to make friends. Maybe you’d like to spend some time with him?”

Semi’s not sure that he _would_ , but Kaa-san’s been encouraging him to make more friends than just Konoha (who stole his idea of blond hair and then left for Tokyo) and Tou-san would probably laugh and then tell him off if he said no, so he just smiles awkwardly and nods.

Tendou looks relieved. Semi wonders whether he’ll regret agreeing to spend time with ‘Satori’.

After three hours with the kid, he has his answer.

“Ha!” Satori declares, after having won their third Go game. Semi’s always thought himself at least a _decent_ player, but Satori is… something else. “You suck at this game!”

Semi frowns, beginning to collect his pieces – the white pieces – from the board.

“If your mum’s a hairdresser,” he begins, glancing up to see Satori watching attentively. “How come she lets you walk around with your hair like that?”

Satori, bless him – or maybe curse him – just looks confused.

“What’s wrong with my hair?” he asks innocently. Semi finds himself holding in violent laughter, and feels quite a bit like his father.

“Well,” he states, placing a piece down on the board. “It looks like a mushroom.”

Only _very_ belatedly does he realise that he probably just offended Satori, but when he cautiously looks up Semi just sees Satori studying the board with an intense look of concentration and tapping his leg at an annoying speed.

“Like you can say anything,” Satori scoffs, moving forwards to start moving his own pieces. Semi frowns at the moves he makes. Shit, Satori is _good_. “ _Your_ hair hurts my eyes. You’re like the sun in human form.”

Semi tilts his head.

“That was weird,” he comments bluntly. Satori looks up and grins.

“You started it,” he says, leaning back, looking smug about the move he just made. Or about his comment. Or both. “Wanna hang out next weekend?”

Semi stares at the board, and thinks of how annoying he finds Satori and how much better at Go this kid is.

“Sure,” he says.

orange

After spotting a small, bouncy kid with orange hair, Semi gets the brilliant idea to die his hair orange.

“Don’t you think you should just pick a colour and stick to it?!” Kaa-san demands. She’s been in a bad mood all day – snapping at everything and just _itching_ for a fight – so Semi doesn’t take it to heart. Instead he just shrugs.

“Tendou-sama says she thinks it’s good to change things up.”

Tou-san bursts into laughter, which honestly came a lot later than Semi was expecting.

“Well,” Kaa-san says, frowning. “Why isn’t _she_ your mother then?”

Something inside Semi snaps.

“Better than you!” he replies angrily. Kaa-san doesn’t even falter, but Tou-san has stopped laughing.

“Maybe you should go and live with her then!”

“Maybe I will!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

He spins and practically runs outside, slamming the door behind him, blinking harshly. His mother’s always been hot-headed, and he’s always known that he’s inherited that from her, but – still. Arguing isn’t nice.

Semi _does_ , after all, end up at the Tendou’s several streets away, where Tendou-sama offers to do his hair for free.

“I could even do something to the tips,” she informs, setting up her equipment whilst Satori watches with a crooked grin on his face. “Orange hair, but black at the edges… if you wanted.”

Semi nods, arms folded. He’s still trying to cool off from the argument with Kaa-san, and when Tendou-sama had called Tou-san to make sure it was okay for him to be here (and, furthermore, for her to dye his hair), it had felt something like a betrayal.

“Hey,” Satori says, leaning over. He still has that _awful_ haircut. “What’s your _real_ hair colour, anyway?”

Semi scowls.

“This,” he states, gesturing to his head. Satori rolls his eyes.

“I mean your _original_ one,” he specifies, as though Semi’s stupid and didn’t already know that. Which is _annoying_.

Semi feels his hands curl into fists.

“It doesn’t matter,” he practically growls, but Satori just pokes his cheek with a snort.

“Calm down,” he instructs, and oddly enough – that actually _helps_. “Don’t you have, like – a hobby to help relax you?”

Semi shrugs lightly. Behind him, Tendou-sama is moving about the way only a professional could.

“I play volleyball,” Satori carries on, and Semi senses Tendou-sama freezing up slightly, before slowly continuing. “Or, at least – I _try_ to.” He looks sad for a second, before seeming to perk himself up. “You should, too! I bet you’d make a good setter.”

Semi stares blankly.

“A what?”

“A setter! It’s one of the positions,” Satori clarifies, and proceeds to give a full lecture that Semi, oddly enough, finds himself enjoying.

When Semi finally heads home, hair newly orange-with-black-tips, Tou-san laughs and Kaa-san drudges up an awkward apology, which he returns.

At least his hair’s more interesting, now.

red

He sticks with orange for a while, and Semi finds that he _really_ likes the black tips.

Due to Satori’s suggestion, Semi begins playing volleyball and promptly gets addicted. It’s good for calming down, like Satori said, and he sure enough is best at being the setter. He’s… _really good_.

Working hard ends him with the position of captain, somehow. It’s probably mostly due to no one else wanting it, but Semi feels proud nonetheless.

The day Semi finds out that both him and Satori have been accepted into Shiratorizawa, he sends Kaa-san on an errand to buy him some red hair dye. Being Kaa-san, she buys the most obnoxiously red dye she can find, which is somehow _brighter_ than Satori’s.

Semi dyes it anyway, getting more black to keep his tips different.

“You changed your hair!” Satori practically shouts when he spots it. Semi rolls his eyes.

“Thanks, Mr Obvious,” he drones. Satori is bouncing with something akin to excitement. His own hair is different now, which is the biggest relief Semi has ever faced. The spikes still aren’t _great_ , but he only has to _think_ of the god-awful style from before to shudder. “I felt like I wanted a different colour for high school.”

“And you chose mine.” Satori is being all dramatic, holding a hand up to his heart. “Eita, I didn’t realise you were in love with me.”

Semi flushes _very_ slightly, looking away.

“Red was the one Kaa-san chose,” he defends, squinting his eyes through the sunlight. “Now are we going to play, or what?”

Satori snickers, put changes the subject.

“Volleyball or Go?”

pink

For Semi’s birthday, Tou-san buys him some pink hair dye.

What kind of a son would he be if he didn’t passive-aggressively use it?

“Your hair looks like a piece of bubble-gum,” Satori comments as they walk to school, mouth full of sweets. “Except for the black bits, I guess. Hey, do you think hair’s edible? What would happen if I ate some?”

Semi smirks.

“You’d get a hairball, and you’d totally deserve it.”

“Ew! That would be pretty funny, though.”

“If it was happening to you, sure.”

Satori laughs, at which point they enter the gymnasium. Oohira glances over, and promptly does a double take. Yamagata blatantly stares. Ushijima, bless him, doesn’t even falter, moving over to collect the ball that dropped from Yamagata’s hands.

“Oh my god,” Yamagata says. Satori is snickering beside Semi. “You look like a birthday cake.”

“Don’t be rude,” Oohira admonishes, then turns to Semi. “I think it looks nice.”

“So do I,” Semi states, and it’s true. “I think this is my favourite so far.”

“Eita offered to let me eat it!” Satori pipes up. Semi shoots him a glare.

“I did not!”

“What’s going on?” a voice interrupts. Washijou. Shit.

His eyes scan over them until they come to settle on Semi. He cringes a little on instinct. The red was the first non-natural colour he’d had, with its brightness, but the pink is something else _entirely_.

The coach narrows his eyes, but doesn’t shout.

“Well?” he says instead. “Are you _going_ to start practising?”

dark green

Semi loves the pink, really, but as with all the others, he gets bored eventually. He tells Kaa-san to pick a random colour that he hasn’t had before, and she comes home with dark green.

He glares at her when he accepts it, but to be fair he dug his own grave there.

“You look like a tree,” Satori comments. Semi shoots the most withering look he can muster.

“Thanks.”

Satori laughs, loud enough for people around them to shoot glares.

“But, seriously, why green though?” Satori asks once he’s calmed down, dipping into his bag to pull out the sweets that he routinely carries around. “And why doesn’t the school seem to give a shit?”

Semi shrugs lightly.

“Coach doesn’t care as long as I set alright. The teachers don’t care as long as I pay attention in class. Which I don’t, but I didn’t do that anyway. So it’s all good.”

“…Huh.” Satori looks around, skipping as he walks. “What do you think the rest of the team will say?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“Aw, don’t be like that, Eita.”

“I’ll ‘be like’ whatever I want.”

“Look at you, trying to be hard-core.”

“If I wanted to be hard-core, I would’ve stuck with the black hair.”

Satori widens his eyes.

“Your hair used to be _black_? Oh god, _please_ tell me you’ve got photos.”

He has, but there’s no _way_ he’s showing Tendou.

“Black was the first colour I dyed it.”

“Wait, so that’s not even what it was at first? _Ugh_. Why’re you holding out on me, Eita?”

Semi punches Satori in the arm.

It’s pretty satisfying.

light green

Of three younger siblings, the oldest – and most annoying – is Jiro.

He’d been cute, at first, and even though he’s only a few years younger than Semi, and probably still would be if he wasn’t a _little fucking copycat_.

Case in point: he’s bleached his hair blond.

It’s _annoying_.

“You’re copying me!” Semi accuses, going all out and pointing a finger. “You _little_ – why did you have to do this?!”

“Calm down, Eita,” Satori drawls from beside him. Semi shoots the darkest glare he can muster. “You’re overreacting.”

Semi flushes, because Satori’s right and he knows it.

“I just thought it would look cool!” Jiro defends. Semi glares, folding his arms.

“Couldn’t you have picked a colour I’ve _not_ had? There’s tons of them!”

Jiro huffs and doesn’t reply, mainly because Satori has just spun Semi around fast enough to make him dizzy.

“Okay, _you_ need to calm down.” Satori starts moving Semi out of the door like he’s a fucking _child_ , which he’s _not_. Somehow, embarrassingly, a growl slips out of his mouth. Great, now he’s a _wolf_. “Hey, how about we play some volleyball? _Or_ dye your hair again? How about light green, that way you still get to look like a tree but it’ll be a change -”

Semi tunes out, letting himself be hustled by Satori outside. He vaguely registers Satori saying something to Jiro – probably an apology on his behalf. It wouldn’t be the first time Tendou Satori has had to apologise on the behalf of Semi Eita, and Semi thinks it says something that a lot of the time _he_ has to apologise for _Satori._

Semi ends up staying over at Satori’s, with Tendou-sama calling his parents to let them know.

“It’s probably for the best,” he overhears Kaa-san saying, because she practically shouts down the phone whenever she answers. “We can get… worked up, in our house. Eita probably just needs some time to cool off.”

When Semi returns home the next day, it’s with light green hair.

light blue

Semi greets the First Years with newly light blue hair, making extra sure that the black tips are visible, and he’s not sure whether they’re terrified or impressed.

One kid isn’t: Shirabu Kenjirou.

He kind of reminds Semi of Jiro, and he’s _kind of annoying_.

“He’s so smug,” Semi mutters to Oohira, ignoring the disproving look he receives. “ _Ugh_. He thinks I didn’t notice him staring at my hair. Which I _did_. I’m not stupid.”

“Just failing English,” Satori pipes in. Semi pinches him.

“I was thinking I might go with silver hair,” he states, if only to move the topic on from his dismal English grades. “I’m not really feeling the light blue.”

“What about _dark_ blue?” Oohira points out, raising a brow. Semi tilts his head, considering.

“I’ll go with that afterwards.”

Oohira nods in understanding, and in Semi’s head he shifts from being _Oohira_ to _Reon_.

silver

The day Satori snogs him is after Semi’s had silver hair for a month, and he’s so taken aback that he freezes.

After a moment Satori steps back, looking disappointed. They’ve been left alone to clean up; everyone else has already gone home. Satori had wanted to ‘practise spiking’, but now it’s clear he wanted something else, too.

“Satori -” Semi starts, but Satori just shakes his head.

“It’s fine,” he says abruptly, eyes shifting. “It’s – it’s cool. Hey, wanna go to the comic store later? You could look for -”

Semi doesn’t know what’s coming next and he doesn’t care, moving forwards to re-capture Satori and taking an immense delight in the slight squeak that emerges from Satori’s throat.

“Oh,” Satori says numbly once Semi’s pulled away, looking confused but _happy_. “But you -”

“Were surprised,” Semi finishes truthfully, smirking. “You kind of came at me out of nowhere.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. In fact, I give you permission to do it again.”

“Like – right now?”

“Sure.”

Semi decides to immortalise this moment by keeping his hair silver for a while. Though, he thinks, enthusiastically pressing up against Satori – he’s not likely to forget.

dark blue

Semi dyes his hair again after six months, when he’s starting to get sick of looking in the mirror to silver hair.

That’s not to say that he’s getting sick of _Satori_ – quite the opposite, in fact. They spent a lot of time together already, but since they started dating suddenly they’re at each other’s houses almost every other night.

Semi decides to go with Reon’s suggestion of dark blue. It’s alright, even if he thinks his favourite so far _has_ to have been pink. Maybe one day he’ll go back to it.

blue

And then Shirabu Kenjirou is picked to be the main setter, and Semi goes home, shatters five plates, and dyes his hair bright, bright blue.

purple

It’s Jiro that buys him the purple dye, five whole weeks later. He’s still kind of freaked out about all the plates Semi smashed, and the way he’d locked himself in his room for two days before Satori had come round to practically drag him out.

Jiro’s playing volleyball, too, because how could he _not_. He’s a wing spiker though, which is a relief. At least Semi gets to be the only one to be a setter.

Though – he’s not, is he? Because Shirabu _fucking_ Kenjirou’s doing it too.

And the worst part? Shirabu’s doing it _better_.

“I thought the purple might look nice,” Jiro explains, awkwardly holding the box. He’s not usually nervous around things, but Semi supposes having him as an older brother does that to a person. He feels bad, he really does, because he didn’t _mean_ to freak anyone out by smashing all those plates, but he’s never been great at his own apologies and so he hasn’t yet been able to bring himself to say anything. “You don’t – if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Dye it, I mean.”

Semi stares for a few seconds, before he reaches out and takes the box.

“Thanks,” he says, voice raw. “I will. And – sorry.”

Jiro is silent, but he nods.

Semi’s hair is still purple when they lose against Karasuno, months later.

teal

Semi dyes his hair especially for graduation.

Satori is a comforting presence beside his side, grinning like mad and insisting on holding Semi’s hand.

“Nice,” he’d commented when Semi had arrived, all teal hair and black tips. “You’re gonna look great on the photos. You’ll really stand out.”

And, really, that’s all he’d wanted all along.

white

Five months into university, and Semi Eita’s family makes the mistake of giving Tendou Satori childhood photos of their eldest son.

“So it’s _brown_!” Satori declares triumphantly, holding the pictures up high to avoid Semi, who’s desperately trying to grab them. “Aw, Eita, you were such a cutie. Why’d you have to go and grow up?”

“So you could legally make out with me.”

Satori considers that for a second.

“…Fair point,” he concedes, still grasping the photos tightly. “I’m holding onto these, though. I can’t believe all along your hair was _brown_.”

“I like it better like this,” Semi states. Tendou grins.

“Me too. The whole white and black theme.”

“Your hair’s better now, too.” Semi messes Satori’s spikes up, enjoying the squawk of indignation. “That mushroom cut.”

“I did _not_ look like a mushroom!” Then, after a moment, “Okay, so _maybe_ I did. But I blame my mum for letting me walk around like that.”

Semi does, too, but he doesn’t say so.

“Hey,” he says, still messing with Satori’s hair. “Are you ever going to dye your hair?”

Tendou grins.

“Nah. I like it red. Why, you ever gonna settle for just _one_ colour?”

Semi smiles, shaking his head.

“No. I think I’ll keep it exciting.”

“You’re pretty exciting anyway, Eita.”

“Was that a compliment?”

“I dunno, was it?”

“You said it!”

Satori laughs, and it’s nice.

And, Semi thinks – if he’d never dyed his hair he’d never have met Tendou-sama, never would have had that history with Satori, and so probably wouldn’t be here right now.

All in all – life’s turned out pretty good.


End file.
